For when sane just isn’t good enough

Posts Tagged ‘TV’

More old cartoons for your nostalgia Friday today, both of them of French origin! The first one is Wattoo Wattoo Super Bird, a cartoon I’d dimly remembered, but could never figure out or recall the name of. Isn’t the Intarwebs a wonderful place for rediscovering the wonders of your youth? I think the premise of this show is best left to Wikipedia:

The eponymous Wattoo Wattoo is a black and white ovoid bird. He comes from a cube-shaped planet called Auguste. In the first episode he becomes aware of the very stupid and extremely wasteful race called Zwas. The Zwas are goose-like creatures that live on the Earth in cities very much like our own. […] Throughout the series Wattoo Wattoo helps the Zwas overcome their problems through the use of his seemingly magical powers. He is able to transform himself into any shape. Should he need the help of others of his race he has only to whistle. Other identicle birds respond to the call and come down from space like comets. As they fly down they vibrate and duplicate themselves until they are a flock ready to take on whatever challenge is required of them.

The second cartoon today is Barbapapa, a bizarre shapeshifting pink blob who tries to fit in with the human world. His family include his wife, Barbamama, and seven kids, collectively called the Barbababies (Barbabeau, Barbabright, Barbazoo, Barbabravo, Barbalib, Barbalala, and Barbabelle, if you want specifics).

And of course it’s the wit and wisdom of Jeremy Clarkson, the host of the ever funny Top Gear. This time around, Clarkson reviews the Honda Insight Hybrid car, and if you’ve ever watched Top Gear before, you’d know that Clarkson isn’t a fan of Hondas, and believes that they’re cars for “old people”. So, of course, this isn’t going to be one of Jeremy’s favorites. How bad is this car?

It’s terrible. Biblically terrible. Possibly the worst new car money can buy. It’s the first car I’ve ever considered crashing into a tree, on purpose, so I didn’t have to drive it any more.

That’s….pretty darned bad. The review descends into a rant about green cars as a whole, but that’s been a sticky point for Jeremy for a long time, so I guess it was to be expected. Still, the entire article is pretty funny, and worth a read.

Yea, I know it’s a day late. Had a pretty busy Friday and in the rush of things, I kinda forgot about Nostalgia Friday. So…I know that a good number of viewers from my side of the world will remember La Linea, the strange two-minute cartoon about a line drawing and his antics. The show is Italian in origin, and 88 episodes were produced starting in 1969, so it’s WELL old. The show, as you can see from the clip above, features the line man vs his animator, and the antics that follow. Back when I was a kid and this was regularly on TV, I think there was no way of telling when one of these would appear, so it was always a delight to see one pop up on the screen.

Hot on the heels of the online suicide posted by S, an ex-police officer in Buenos Aires has committed suicide on live TV just after completing an interview. The man, Mario Ferreyra, shot himself fatally in the head as he was about to be arrested on charges for alleged human rights violations.

“Maria, goodbye,” Mario Ferreyra said to his wife before lifting the .45-caliber revolver and shooting himself in the temple.

Ferreyra, 63, took his life on Friday as national authorities
arrived at his home to arrest him on charges in connection with the
disappearance, torture and death of dissidents during Argentina’s
1976-83 dictatorship.

Sci-fi blog io9.com has an article that details the reasons behind Tennant’s departure from this brilliant series:

So was David Tennant’s leaving the show all down to his need to move on? A now or never thing? Not quite. He had been in negotiations with the BBC for a fifth, even a sixth full series, but wanted another 2009-lite Doctor Who break in 2011, a film pursued, and money above the current BBC wage cap. It didn’t happen.

There’s also some information about the River Song story arc:

The one bigger casualty, as well as casting for The Doctor sooner than expected, has been an arc in Series Five for the River Song character, revealed in Series 4 as the Doctor’s possible future wife.

I speculated in a previous post’s comments that the whole River Song story shouldn’t be affected too much–the way she went through that book in the show indicates that, although she recognized the Doctor for who he was, it wasn’t the same incarnation that she’d been familiar with. This means that there was at least one regeneration between the tenth Doctor and his adventures with Professor Song.

Finally, the article mentions the possibilities of the eleventh Doctor:

I have it on veeeeery good authority that the next Doctor has already been chosen. It’s an interesting new direction, and the choice (assuming no changes of heart) will probably surprise – and divide – many. The name I’ve heard isn’t Paterson Joseph. Or John Simm. Or James Nesbitt.

Any speculation on what “interesting direction” could possibly mean?

In other Doctor Who news, it seems that I missed something interesting: turns out that Jenny might make a reappearance in the 2009 special series! According to the Sun:

David’s real-life love Georgia Moffett, 23, returns as his daughter Jenny for one of the Who specials.

Update: According to Doctor Who blog, Outpost Gallifrey, the odds are tipped in David Morrisey’s favor 2:1. Paterson Joseph comes next at 6:1 odds. Very interesting odds include Anthony Head (Buffy’s Giles, for those who don’t know the name–stacked at 12:1 odds), Alan Davies (18:1), Steven Fry (40:1), and trailing at the back, Robbie Williams (200:1).